On the Uses of Amy Bishop Anderson [UPDATE]

Over the weekend, there’s been a lot of commentary regarding the professor who, apparently because she was denied tenure, opened fire on her colleagues at a meeting at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, killing three and wounding three, two of whom were still in critical condition as of yesterday. The accused shooter then apparently abandoned the 9mm pistol in a women’s bathroom and called her husband to come pick her up. She was apprehended by police in the parking lot of the building, where she had performed her duties as a biology professor and researcher, and from which she was to depart at the end of the semester, though she had fought the original ruling for a year.

Subsequently, though, it came to light that Bishop, when 20 years old and living at home with her family in Braintree, MA, killed her brother Seth, 18, with a pump-action shotgun which he and their father were licensed to use, and which they purchased from a sporting goods store after suffering a home invasion. She had managed, moments prior to that, to blow a hole in her bedroom wall with the gun, though her mother claimed she heard no blast (her father was out of the house at the time). After what some police described as a phone call from the then-District Attorney Delahunt, now a US Representative from Massachusetts, then-Police Chief Polio ordered his officers to cease booking procedures and release her, determining that the shooting was an accident. The present Police Chief of Braintree, a Mr. Frazier, recalled that some members of the department were upset with the decision in 1986/87 (the killing took place on December 6, 1986). The official police report was said to be missing, but a six-page report surfaced on the internet, alleging the two shots mentioned, whereas police involved with the incident mentioned three. The report stated that Ms. Bishop was in such an agitated emotional state that the police deemed it counterproductive to interview her at the time of her arrest. The report also indicated that in her testimony at the time Amy Bishop said the did not recall having brought the gun with her from the house. Her contention was that the gun went off as she attempted to remove the shells.

What wasn’t included in the report were the circumstances of her capture, because some of the officers who were with the department at the time averred that she was captured at gunpoint after having attempted to hijack a car. As it turns out, according to the testimony of one eye-witness, she fled from her home to a local auto dealership, where she attempted to steal a getaway vehicle, stating that her husband was pursuing her with murderous intent. She went so far as to level the gun at one of the employees, which seems a rather strange omission. Between the missing official report and what is missing from the one that remains, some have seen a cover-up, particularly because her mother apparently sat on the police board of personnel at the time. The retired Chief, Mr. Polio, strongly denies any wrongdoing, though the present department says that the official file has been missing since 1988.

Three people are dead, two clinging to life, and the woman leaves behind four children. I’m not sure what her political leanings have to do with this; there’s simply not enough information. But whatever the case, the facts themselves will be dispassionate—however they are used.

You can read a paper co-authored by Bishop on the comparative toxicity of SSRIs here (pdf).

9 Comments on On the Uses of Amy Bishop Anderson [UPDATE]

I am sick and tired of shit like the “oddball” reference the MSM is placing on her. SHe f*cking killed people! And yet, whenever some loner nut with Sarah Palin’s book and a rifle dows something he shouldn’t, he is Timothy McVeigh redux, not an “oddball”.

Just to clarify, the Braintree police report is still missing. The report available is the State Police report. I heard It should actually have all information from the Braintree police appended, but does not. It does not contain the reports of the officers who were at the scene or who apprehended her.

It’s clearly incomplete, drops the ball on several points that would ordinarily be persued, and to me appears to be edited heavily before its final submission.

Thanks for the clarification, Sarah. Yeah, there’s a lot that normally would be in such a report that’s not there. It seems likely that they’ll reopen the brother case, and that after the criminal trial’s done the university and the state and local police in Massachusetts will be parties to a civil action.

Extreme people are extreme. Her fascination with perfection and superiority would be a piece with some personality disorders. I wish people realized that kind of deranged intensity is on the fringes of every party. Unless you’re a Paul-bot, in which case the diagnosis can be made without seeing the patient.

“It is fairly certain, at any rate, that had Napolitano’s office released the kind of report it did about a right-wing threat regarding the left […] they would be screaming bloody murder.”

That’s undoubtedly true. But you forget the conservative side’s current fascination with guns — including ginned-up fears of gun confiscation by the Feds — and loose talk about secession and revolution. Ballot box vs. bullet box — that kind of thing.

There was a time when the far left had similar obsessions, but the balance has definitely shifted. It shifted a long time ago.

Let’s just say that the media treats Vermont’s secessionist movement differently than it does Texas’. For that matter, it is treating Amy Bishop Anderson’s mass murdering differently from the way it would someone with different political sympathies.

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